Aningaaq - The "Gravity" Companion Short

If you guys had a chance to watch Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity (No spoiler zone ahead), you'll probably remember that moment in which Sandra Bullock makes contact with someone on earth speaking a foreign language. In that moment a fractured conversation plays out, featuring a barking dog, a crying baby and a momentary sense of comfort on Bullock's part for the simple fact of not being alone in the tense feature.

Directed by Alfonso's son, Jonas Cuaron as a meta-short to accompany the film, Aningaaq tells the tale from the perspective of the Inuit fisherman stationed on an isolated fjord. Both isolated in an unforgiving environment, the parallel stories are tied together in their theme of survival. The interesting thing about Aningaaq is that it ended up gaining a life of it's own in the festival circuit, and is currently up for Oscar consideration in the short film category. If it gets nominated alongside the sure-fire Gravity, it'll be the first time in Academy Awards history that a feature and spinoff drawn from the same cloth get nominated together. Let's see how this plays out.

"Gravity" Compositing Breakdown

In this artist breakdown by Prime Focus World starring Creative Director Richard Baker and Production artist Matthew Bristowe featuring a scene from Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity, we get an in depth breakdown of the compositing process and VFX integration in just one shot. The main point of the video is in regards to doing stereo conversion (Converting the film from 2D to 3D ) during production rather than after the fact to deliver the best 3D experience possible. A little on the technical side, but an interesting behind the scenes nonetheless.

The Sound Work Of Alfonso Cuaron's "Gravity"

I don't know if you guys have had a chance to check out Gravity just yet, I won't talk much about it to avoid potential spoilers, but I have to say that I left the experience feeling that the sound work was just one of the many highlights in the film. Aside from the incredible attention to detail to accurately capturing the muffled soundscape of space, the behind the scenes documentary goes into just how many different stages mixer Skip Lievsay went into creating an immersive surround sound experience using some truly incredible tools.

The last time I remember feeling this way was with the original Dead Space, which also did an amazing job raising the bar in regards to sound design in space, which was typically treated in the past as being no different than Earth. This example of the type of attention to detail to every aspect of the movie that Alfonso Cuaron gave to his latest film gave me a renewed sense of appreciation for what he managed to accomplish with Gravity.

'Gravity' Makes Space a Little More Terrifying

I said earlier last month that the amount of science fiction being released is absolutely amazing and a little overwhelming, but I can't argue with the fact that there will always be room for more. Gravity looks like quite a depressing trip through space, telling the story of lone astronauts drifting through space after debris rips their station to pieces. The trailer does a fantastic job showcasing the movies intensity. Judging from Alfonso Cuarón's filmography, there's definitely some Oscar possibilities here.